With so many people leaving the Catholic Church in the past
decade, I've noticed more and more reasons people are giving to this seemingly
intriguing reality. Coming back home to New Mexico is always a treat – seeing
family that I’m usually 12 hours from, going to restaurants that I grew up
eating in, and seeing all my neighbors and high school friends at the hometown
Walmart. They’re all among the many joys I receive from coming home. But in the
Church (and really, across the board in and throughout all religions), I've
noticed there’s an increasing desire to do the exact opposite… to not come home, but rather, embracing the
choice to run away.
I've realized over this Christmas break a reoccurring
phrase: “I’m loving college, but I just can’t find a church that I like…. So
I’m struggling with that,” or “Well, we've been church hopping for a while now…
but no luck.” I think I've heard these
statements about 15 times in the past 4 weeks when I’m catching up with
friends, and even with parents who are describing their kids’ college
experiences. At first, I simply thought, “Darn, that’s a really important part
of living community in such a crucial time in their lives, so I hope they find
one,” but after a while, I started to reflect on the reasons why this is such a
problem.
Looking at our culture today, especially millennials (and
I’m guilty of it too), is that if we don’t like something, we immediately
dispose of it (for me, I see this in my shopping habits haha). Our
self-centered motives lead us to something that gives us satisfaction, which I
assume is somewhat natural in parts of life – like choosing between fruits or
vegetables, or picking out a shirt to wear on a Wednesday morning—naturally, we
are going to choose the one that we like better or that looks best. The
diversity is essentially limitless for food and clothing, and I’ve noticed that
our generation has transferred this mentality to everything else in our lives
(i.e. our religion, family, beliefs, and convictions). Everything seems to have
become a disposable now. Some of the most sacred traditions of our lives have
even become that way. Marriages are now disposable with divorce, children have
become disposable by many through abortion, and it’s as easy as a simple phone
call to change a credit card account that contains all your savings. The list
seems to go on and on and grows as we continue to place ourselves at the center
of every decision we make as people.
I've noticed a similar effect happening with this “church
hopping” predicament that many of my friends are struggling with. But here’s my
initial question…When has attending church shifted from being about God to
being about us? If we don’t like the pastor or priest of the church, we switch.
If we don’t like the music, we leave. If we think the service or mass is too
long, we try a different church the next week (or worse… stop going). The
amount of variables in a church service are countless, from the choir to the
pastor to the physical space to so many other things, even a robot could find a
reason or excuse to leave a church. This self-satisfaction that we strive to
find in attending church seems to be the opposite of what Jesus wanted when He
created the Church. One of my favorite parts when sharing my reversion back to
the Catholic (or ‘Universal’) Church is the beauty in celebrating and focusing
on Christ the entire mass – the way it was created for. See, the Church isn't
like making a decision between mustard, mayonnaise, and ketchup. It’s not
something we as humans do to ‘feel’ good or based on which one fits our own
individual tastes. If it was, there would be no reason for truth. People would
be able to define who Jesus is for themselves,
they would be able to define morality for themselves,
they would be able to interpret scripture for themselves, they would be able to leave if they felt like it, etc.
You can probably see where I’m going with this.
Those of you reading this post are 1 of 2 people right now –
you’re thinking “Woah, that actually makes sense,” or you’re saying “this is making
me really angry, I can’t believe she’s telling me how to live my life. I can
make my own decisions. She can make her own.” First of all, thank you for
reading this blog post. Second, I’m not here to try to tell you how to live
your life…. But I do think it’s interesting to dig deep with Jesus’ teachings
to see how he laid it out to be from the very beginning, yet how we've switched
it all around to cater to our own desires, wants, and needs. John Paul expressed
it really well when he said, “People inevitably reach the point of rejecting
one another. Everyone else is considered an enemy from whom one has to defend
oneself. Thus, society becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side, but
without any mutual bonds. Each one wishes to assert himself independently of
the other and in fact intends to make his own interest prevail” (no. 20,
Evangelium Vitae).
I’m gonna take a big step out there and venture to say that
if this focus was changed, our college students, parents, and grandparents
wouldn't find a problem finding a home in a church community. I would also
venture to say that there wouldn't be a high volume of people leaving the
Church, but rather, returning home to it. In reality, we were all meant to live
in community with each other from the very beginning. Let’s start looking at
ourselves to see how each of us can come to recognize truth – not by our own
standards, but rather, from the One who came to create them. It might come as a
surprise to some, but the One who created them actually did so in a way to make
us all happy. And that’s what we’re all searching for, right? To satisfy our
own desires. Well, that’s convenient! Let’s go home…. Together.
God Bless!